meats, poultry, fish and eggs: up 9.2%, the largest change from one December to another since 2003

dairy and related products: up 5.3%

fruits and vegetables: up 3.2%

Doug looked at the issue of higher food prices in a number of his single-panel news cartoons from 1975-1977. The cartoons - distributed by the Toronto Star Syndicate - appeared daily in newspapers across North America for nearly 20 years, starting in the mid-1960s.

Sunday, January 18, 2015

Over the years, Doug has submitted thousands of cartoon gag roughs to Playboy. Of course, not all can be selected for final art and ultimate publication in the magazine.

100 of Doug's favorite gag rough rejects were featured in Unpublished Sneyd; this mermaid gag rough reject was published on p. 42 of Unpublished Sneyd, which debuted at his first comics-cartoon convention - May 2007 in San Jose, California.

After C2E2 in 2010, sculptor Clay Moore and Doug collaborated to produce a 1/8 scale statue based on the mermaid cartoon gag rough reject in Unpublished Sneyd.

(The following are preliminary development pencil and color roughs for this 1/8 scale statue.)

Doug's working on his sixth 24-page sketchbook. The 11 x 17 mermaid watercolor original he donated to the 2013 Emerald City Comicon charity auction, supporting the Seattle Children's Hospital, is featured on the cover. The artwork was also reproduced on p. 70 of the convention art book, Monsters and Dames.

Sunday, January 11, 2015

Stories of mermaids appear in the folklore of many cultures worldwide, but mention "mermaid" today and most people think of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale "The Little Mermaid" (1836).

In addition to Tivoli Gardens, Nyhavn and Amalienborg Palace, visitors to Copenhagen typically want to see the world-famous bronze statue of the little mermaid, displayed, since 1913, on a rock by the waterside at the Langelinie promenade.

You can see Doug working on this recent mermaid original, on Arches of France cold press art board using aniline dyes, by checking out the archived December 7 and 14, 2014 blog posts.

For nearly 20 years, starting in the mid-60s, Doug Sneyd and SCOOPS news cartoons appeared daily in newspapers across North America; the 1972 (top) and 1973 (bottom) Doug Sneyd single-panel cartoons - distributed by the Toronto Star Syndicate - featured mermaids.

He has also depicted these alluring mythical beauties in two full-page color cartoons in Playboy:

April 1993, p. 161 - "I'd like to, but I'm allergic to seafood."

August 1999, p. 85 - "Those Greenpeace types are all alike. One minute they're all over you and the next they dump you for some beached whale."

This is the approved gag rough for the August 1999, p. 85 full-page color cartoon in Playboy.

Both of these mermaid cartoons were among the 270 of Doug's full-page color cartoons featured in The Art of Doug Sneyd, published by Dark Horse in July 2011. The 248-page hardcover book was a 2012 Eisner Award nominee in the Best Humor Publication category.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Bio

Doug has been a cartoonist for Playboy magazine since 1964.
For nearly 20 years, starting in the mid-60's, his "Doug Sneyd" and "Scoops" news cartoons appeared daily in newspapers across North America. Sneyd's talent has also led him into cinema: in 1993, he wrote, produced and directed "Black-eyed Susan," an educational movie-drama about spousal abuse, for the Ontario government. He was a founding member of the Canadian Society of Book Illustrators and has been a member of the National Cartoonists' Society and the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists. Thirty of his full-page color Playboy cartoons are among the 235 Sneyd works included in the National Archives of Canada in Ottawa.
Sneyd was born in Guelph, Ontario, Canada, but spent much of his professional career in Toronto. In 1969 he moved his family north to Orillia made famous as the mythical "Mariposa" by humorist Stephen Leacock. He works on the third floor of his home-studio overlooking beautiful Lake Couchiching and spends his winters on the Gulf Coast in Orange Beach, Alabama.